The history of Favre-Leuba starts in the 18th century. On the 13th of March 1737 Abraham Favre (1702-1790) started a workshop in Le Locle, Switzerland. There are archival documents stating that Abraham Favre was a watchmaker with his own workshop at that time, according to Wikipedia. So the ‘brand name’, if there was any, probably was Favre.

Favre-Leuba’s website reports that Abraham began his watchmaker apprenticeship in 1718 and around 1749 he was appointed ‘Maître horloger du Locle’ (master watchmaker of Le Locle). On the 1st of October 1792, Abraham Favre II (1740-1823), the son of the founder, founds the company ‘A. Favre & Fils’ with his sons Frédéric and Henry-Louis.

In 1815 Henry-Augustus Favre, the son of Frédéric Favre collaborated with Auguste Leuba, a member of a family of watchmakers & merchants, to create the brand name Favre-Leuba. In 1908 Henri Favre-Leuba (1865-1961) becomes head of the family business. He remained president of the board of directors until his death in 1961. The company stayed in the Favre family for eight generations but in 1969, when the quartz watch came on the scene, it had difficulties to run their business. The family finally sold the brand in 1985. It went into different hands and it seems it finally kind of disappeared.

Classic models Favre Leuba are the Bivouac, a watch with an altimeter, and the Bathy, a diving watch. The brand is now being revived: on November 16th 2011, Titan Company Limited, the watch manufacturing company of the Tata group, acquired Favre-Leuba.